Daniel Pearl’s Forgotten War
Four years ago today, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped by militants in Karachi, Pakistan on his way to interview a terrorist leader.
The group claimed that Pearl was a CIA agent and photos of him handcuffed with a gun to his head were circulated. Despite pleas from Journal editors and his wife, Mariane, who was pregnant with their first child, Pearl was decapitated on February 1, 2002, his body cut into pieces and buried in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Karachi, where it was later found.
It is incidental that Pearl’s abductors were not in the mainstream of the Islamic jihad against the West then so very much on people’s minds because of the 9/11 attacks three and a half months earlier. Pearl had gone to Pakistan to investigate links between “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, who had been arrested aboard a U.S.-bound jetliner a month earlier, Al Qaeda and the all-powerful ISI – Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence unit.
Danny Pearl was on the right trail.
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18 Responses to “Daniel Pearl’s Forgotten War”
An American Jew working for the Wall Street Journal trying to investigate links between ISI and extremist Islamists in Pakistan, only a few months after 9-11. To me that sounds more like a variation of suicide by cop. His superiors at the Journal should have been prosecuted for negligence for allowing him to go on that trip.
Jallabo:
You can’t be serious.
Shaun’s posting is timely and significant. Pearl’s death was the first prominent video execution in what has become a horrific ongoing saga of ritualized decapitations of anyone certain Islamic militant groups regard as a useful target/symbol for their media PR.
This saga of death has, I would argue, sadly come to define 21st century Islam in the eyes of much of the non-Islamic world. Even bin Laden’s deputy, in his publicized letters to the late Zaquari of al Qaeda in Iraq, criticized the ritual video decapitations as being counter-productive to the goals of Islamic militants.
This anniversary is also worth noting, as it predates the Iraq war. The seeds of horror were already there, which were to come to bloom in the chaos of Iraq.
I would disagree with Shaun’s contention that “Pearl’s abductors were not in the mainstream of the Islamic jihad against the West”. The role of Pakistan’s ISI – and the fact that the man behind Pearl’s kidnapping and death was a British-educated “Westernized” Muslim – reflect themes that would be echoed in terror attacks against the West in later years.
As for Jallabo’s point, I myself have wondered at Pearl’s courage or naivete in tracking this story – considering highly anti-Jewish/anti-American attitudes of its principals – in Pakistan (the heartland of Islamic extremism). For anyone who has seen that video of Pearl making his forced confession – repeatedly stating that his being a Jew was behind his actions – the hatred of his captors for Jews is preeminent over even their hatred of Americans.
I would not say Pearl was “suicidal” in pursuing a story on these people in Pakistan. I know a Jewish man who was a pilot in Bomber Command who flew almost two dozen missions over Nazi Germany wearing a Star of David around his neck. I thought that was courage bordering on stupidity, but admired it all the same. I gather Pearl was an idealist with regard to peoples of different cultures finding common ground.
Thus, I think he was foolhardy and perhaps naive, but probably courageous too.
Thanks for reminding us. A sadly significant anniversary in modern history.
Marlowecan:
Although I suppose it is an arguable point, Pearl’s abductors were concerned with Pakistani autonomy more than jihad.
As to the issue of Pearl’s religion: It is a non-starter for me and most journalists. Jallabo’s point is inane.
[...] Hats off to Shaun Mullen at The Moderate Voice for remembering Daniel Pearl’s death this morning. [...]
Thank you, Samurai Soapbox.
For readers who don’t click on the “read more” link on my post and get to the part about the Daniel Pearl Foundation, please visit its website here to learn more about this extraordinary man and how he is being remembered.
Pearl also was an accomplished classical musician. You can read more about that here, including composer Steve Reich’s “Daniel Variations.”
Musharraf may be completely duplicitous, as in having divided loyalties (or even loyalties to the ISI’s islamist goals which he somehow felt were served by paying lip service to being a US ally.) But more likely, in my view, is that he does wish to purge the Islamists (including the Taliban and al Qaeda enablers within ISI) but simply doesn’t have the power to do so. One reason that I’m less angry about the ‘diversion’ of US resources to Iraq is that I felt that we had reached the end of the road with our strategy in Afghanistan. Musharraf had been pushed as far as he could to help without going to the brink of an assassination/ coup which would have been every bit as disastrous as our removal of Saddam has proven to be. That’s how I read the situation, anyway, although arguably we could have handled an all out regional conflict better there because at least we had a broader international coalition. And, what’s not arguable is that my assumption that we’d at least be able to hold onto the gains we’d made in Afghanistan (as well as continuing meaningful reconstruction) while pursuing goals in Iraq proved to be misguided confidence.
CStanley:
I am with you until you say that the U.S. has been able to “hold onto the gains” that it has made.
That is questionable given that the Taliban now governs Waziristan in western Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan and, as I noted in my post, there has been an increase in incursions back into Afghanistan against NATO troops and Arghanis.
This today from Bill Roggio, who has been well ahead of the MSM:
No Shaun, I guess my sentence wasn’t clearly expressed. I was trying to say that we haven’t been able to hold the gains we’d made in Afghanistan (that’s what I was referring to as my “misguided confidence”)
CStanley:
I see. Thank you.
Inane? How is mentioning the facts that got him (rather predictably) killed ‘inane’? It’s probably more relevant that he was American, after all it is highly doubtful that an Israeli would had tried such a stupid stunt (after all they are aware of the fact that they have enemies (rather lost of them) and do not pretend everybody is their potential friend). As for the American journalistic profession as a whole and their precious ‘integrity’, let’s just say after their enabling contribution to the still ongoing carnage in Iraq (at least 130 Iraqis massacred yesterday alone) they should all eat humble pie for the next couple of decades and try to restore at least a bit of this utterly destroyed journalistic integrity.
Jallabo:
Not sure you’re in a listening frame of mind, but I’ll give it a shot.
Pearl’s religion was not why he was abducted nor, from available evidence, later decapitated and cut into pieces. It became known during his captivity that he was a Jew and that became a side issue.
By your calculus, I should have only half stayed out of anti-Jewish hotspots I visited because, by golly, I am half Jewish. Or Jo Carroll, the reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, should have stayed out of Iraq because the people who were most likely to abduct her — which is what happened — put women somewhere below sheep and goats and would be horrified to know the teachings of the religion that founded and underwrites her paper.
I do believe in being cautious. So do the vast majority of journalists. But assigning stories based on one’s faith — or alternately not assigning them — undermines the integrity of the profession, such as it is.
You didn’t ask, but the one time I lied about myself was when I claimed to be a Canadian and not an American when I found myself in the middle of an anti-American bar fight in Tokyo.
Shaun – You failed to mention Pearl’s parents forgiving his murders in a manner similar to the Amish families whose children were murdered. Hating Ayraabs/Jews is an excuse to continue the conflict in the ME. The Daniel Pearl.org website is an interesting read. The laura’s and jallabo’s will not accept forgiveness at this level. Most of us cannot understand forgiveness at this level.
Rudi:
I apologize for the oversight. It is a significant one given our violence-sodden “Eye For An Eye” Society.
It just puts Pearl and his family in a larger perspective. It’s like both sides of the political spectrum usimg Pat Tillman for their hatchet jobs. Tillman,Chomsky and the Rangers make for strange bedfellows. Like Ann Coulter and the Deadheads.
CS,
We still had a long way to go in Afghanistan when things started being diverted to Iraq. In this kind of conflict the follow up is at least as important as the initial conflict. Iraq is just a larger proof of that fact that blew up faster than the slow disaster now taking place in Afghanistan. It’s why Rumsfeld should have gone a long time ago. He and his allies are still fighting the last wars, a mistake with a long and tragic history.
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